


Where We Wanna Be

by rinnwrites



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Domesticity, Getting Together, Inhumans (Marvel), M/M, Meeting Alternate Universe Counterparts, Multiple Universes Colliding, Portals, What Could Have Been
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-06-01 04:28:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15135107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinnwrites/pseuds/rinnwrites
Summary: Tony and Bucky stumble through a portal to an alternate universe and they run into themselves, in a world without Avengers....or their enemies.orTony Stark Bingo - A1: Meeting Alternate Universe Counterparts





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've got an ~idea of where this fic is going, but i'm not sure yet how in depth it'll get. Stay tuned.
> 
> Edit: I've sussed it out and i'm feeling about 10 total chapters. hooray.

“Stark, just got an alert from the satellite, disturbance in Brooklyn. Take Buck and check it out.”

Steve’s voice came through loud and clear in the helmet of his suit where he was flying a perimeter around Avengers tower. There was an inhuman causing trouble all over the city that had been elluding this month’s iteration of SHIELD, and they’d reached out to the Avengers for assistance. This particular degenerate was opening portals all over town, which, at first, seemed to just transport unsuspecting civilians across the city or further, but then odd stories started coming in about people being sent back through time first moments, then years, and decades, and finally....disappearing all together, which made them threatening enough to draw some serious attention. 

Tony’d isolated the radiation signatures from known portals and programmed his satellite to be on the lookout. He hadn’t really expected to pick up any real-time results, but he was interested, and not about to pass up an opportunity to see this, so he banked left, back towards the tower. “Roger that, waiting outside, Cap.” He slowed, hovering near the garage exit for a few moments until an all black motorcycle sped out of the exit, and Tony took off after it, showboating and barrel rolling in the sky and easily tracking the gleaming metal of Bucky’s arm as the ex-assassin weaved in and out of traffic, speeding across town. 

“You’re approaching the portal’s signature now, take a left down the next alley and stay on comms, be careful, you don’t want to stumble into this thing, we have no idea where it’ll take you.” Steve hid the worry in his voice well, but he still sounded a bit like a nervous parent. 

Rather than tease him about it, Tony remained silent, starting his descent as the bike below him slowed, touching down on the ground just as Bucky swung his leg over and firmly planted both feet on the asphalt. 

His fingers, flesh and metal alike, combed wind-swept hair from his face, and he straightened his gear, taking quick inventory of his belt where a series of weapons were secured against the black leather and kevlar of his tactical uniform.

“Looks like any old alley to me, Steve. What are we looking for?” Bucky’s voice was low and gruff, and he cut his eyes up to Tony as the faceplace slid back to reveal his face. 

“We don’t know what these portals look like yet, only the energy signature they give off, and FRIDAY’s confirmed that there’s something here.” He answered before Steve had the chance. 

Bucky nodded, cautiously walking into the alley, rolling his feet in that way that made his steps totally silent, and Tony followed behind, his suit quietly retracting plate by plate as he walked, leaving him in his usual garb of jeans, converse and a band tshirt with a sport jacket thrown over for good measure. The condensed suit looked for all the world like a backpack slung carelessly over his shoulders, nothing to betray the fact that a push of a button would turn him into a weapon deadlier than any tucked into Bucky’s belt. 

“Our conjurer couldn’t have gotten far, unless they used the portal, or another to get away.” Tony mused, peeking in and around a dumpster as they passed it, almost expecting the culprit to be lingering there. 

The tension built as they moved through the alleyway, high and tight in Tony’s shoulders and tangibly wafting from Bucky’s whole body. Even Steve seemed to feel it over their comms, having gone uncharacteristically silent for someone who could hardly standing being back at HQ when there were men out in the field. 

Both Tony and Bucky were wound up tight by the time they reached the other end of the alley, ready to jump on any apparent threat, getting more uneasy every moment that nothing out of the ordinary showed itself. 

“Steve….there’s nothing here.” Bucky finally said, his tone wary as he looked over at Tony, who shrugged and stepped carefully back towards the dumpster to take a closer look at the only possible hiding place in the alley. 

The comms stayed silent, and a thrill of worry went down Tony’s spine. “Cap?” he said sharply, “Captain, come in.” Steve Rogers did not abandon comms, especially not when he’d sent his men out to scout for him. 

“Where the fuck is he?” Bucky asked, wild eyes locking on Tony’s, the naked worry for his friend blatantly there. 

“FRIDAY, what’s happening?” Tony tried, waiting for the lilting voice of his AI to explain that they’d briefly lost contact, that Steve was handling an emergency, anything, but her voice didn’t come. “FRIDAY?!” he asked a little more frantically. Steve at least was human, but FRIDAY couldn’t be gone unless something truly catastrophic had happened.  

“We have to get back.” Bucky’s voice was urgent and Tony was already following in his footsteps back to the street, about to don his suit for the flight back to the tower when he ran face first into Bucky’s strong back. 

“What the hell, Barnes, wh...” he trailed off as he saw what Bucky saw, or rather,  _ didn’t _ see. 

The bike was gone.

“It was just right there.” Tony said in annoyance. “You’d have heard someone take it, right? They couldn’t just sneak it out of here.” he babbled, moving around Bucky to walk back down the ally until he reached the mouth of it, lingering for a moment where the motorcycle had been parked and then stepping out onto the sidewalk where a few people were going about their own business, a car or two passing by here and there. 

He peered down the street one way, then went to look the other, turning around just in time to run head first into the chest of a man with his head in the clouds. 

“I’m so sorry, I wasn- Babe?! What are you doing here? What are you  _ wearing _ ?” 

Tony’s jaw dropped as he looked up into the face of….Bucky Barnes, long brown hair pulled up in a bun, workout clothes damp with sweat, a phone holster strapped to his bicep and a wireless earbud held in one of  _ two flesh hands _ . 

Confusion rushed through Tony as he looked from this Bucky Barnes on the street to the Bucky Barnes that he knew, frozen in place in the alley, and all he could come up with to say was “ _Babe_?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

“Looks like any old alley to me, Steve. What are we looking for?” Bucky’s voice rang through the otherwise silent control room. Steve sat alone, watching the radiation signature bloom a bright blue on the map in front of him. He opened his mouth to respond, only to have the words taken out of his mouth.

“We don’t know what these portals look like yet, only the energy signature they give off, and FRIDAY’s confirmed that there’s something here.” Tony’s voice echoed in a way that told Steve he’d taken the faceplate and maybe the entire suit off, something that he’d scold him for if he hadn’t known it was only seconds away if they ran into trouble.  From what he knew, this inhuman they were tracking didn’t seem to be combative, so aside from any portal trickery, his team should be okay. 

Two red dots blinked on the hologram in front of him, one still, indicating Bucky’s bike stopped at the mouth of the alley, and one moving forward, indicating Tony’s armour, slowly approaching the bright blue energy bloom halfway down the alley.

“Our conjurer couldn’t have gotten far, unless they used the portal, or another to get away.” Tony’s voice came through again, his dot nearly on top of the energy signature. 

“Keep your eyes peeled, don’t go in too far, you’re nearly on top of the signature now.” Steve intoned lowly, noting the curiosity in Tony’s voice and only worrying more that he’d sent his men into trouble. 

Neither Tony nor Bucky came back with the expected retort, either a confirmation they’d be careful or a comment on Steve’s overprotectiveness, and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end, his whole being sensing that something was wrong even before he watched the bright blue on his screen flare up, engulf the moving red dot and disappear, taking the dot along with it. 

“Stark, report.” He said levelly, eyes wide as he stood from his chair, already pushing the alert button that would advise any Avengers on the property of a problem. 

“Barnes, Stark, come in.” his tone was more frantic, “Damnit, Buck, Tony, are you there?”

Only silence answered him for a moment until Natasha’s voice came cooly through the comms, “Cap, what’s going on?” 

“Nat, advise any Avengers on location to convene in the control center.” he commanded, dragging a hand from right to left through the hologram to backtrack the map to moments ago and missing Nat’s “Copy” entirely as he carefully watched the flourish of blue in slow motion, its subsequent disappearance and the simultaneous vanishing of Tony’s red dot. 

“Damnit.” he muttered under his breath, looking up at the ceiling out of habit more than necessity as he finally asked, “FRIDAY, what happened.”

“I’m not sure, Captain. I’ve lost contact with both Boss and Sergeant Barnes,” the AI lamented, “I’m seeking their comm signals throughout the city, now.”

“What?!” Natasha’s voice echoed loudly through the control room and Steve turned to see her in the doorway, flanked by Bruce and Clint. “Steve, what happened?”

Steve sighed, rucking a hand through his hair as he turned his back to them and reversed the hologram again, “We got a signature for one of the inhuman’s portals and I had them investigating. The signature flared and we lost contact.” He explained, his tone laced with guilt.

“Captain, I’ve failed to find any trace of them.” FRIDAY’s voice came dutifully from the ceiling. 

“In the city?” Bruce asked, his face twisted in a way that suggested he knew the answer. 

“Anywhere, Doctor.”

The group froze in place, passing worried looks back and forth. 

“So…Whatda we do, Cap?” Clint broke the silence, looking at Steve expectantly. 

Steve considered for a moment, not even sure what steps to take here, but finally shook his head and started spouting orders, “You and Nat suit up, you’re going to go check it out, see if there are any traces left behind, any clues as to what happened, where they’ve gone. Bruce, get all the data from the satellite and any other resources we have, see if FRIDAY has readings from Tony’s suit you can use to get any more info on this portal. FRIDAY, get me Phil Coulson and Agent Johnson, this is inhuman business and they’re our best bet for figuring it out.”

He watched his team spring into action and sank back into his chair, guilt at losing track of two men lingering even despite the relief to see the other Avengers on the case. Steve cradled his head in his hands for a moment, breathing deeply only to collect himself a moment later as the hologram in front of him lit up with a video call, “Captain, Agent Coulson is on the line,” FRIDAY announced softly.

Steve straightened his spine and turned towards the screen, hitting a button on the desk to answer the call, “Phil, we’ve got a problem, we need you on this one.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Babe?” Tony’s eyes darted incredulously between the two Buckys, one of which had just called him a  _ pet name _ , clear as day. The new Bucky’s brow furrowed in confusion at Tony’s question, and blue eyes, somehow warm in their iciness, followed Tony’s gaze to Bucky...the real Bucky? They rounded in surprise as the man took in his own face, dark hair framing it and eyes narrowed in suspicion, but still obviously the very same face. 

“What the hell?” he asked loudly, taking a few steps back as though the recognition had been a blow to the chest. “Who are you?”

It’s a question born of shock, but without any threat behind it. The familiar stranger was surprised, curious, confused, but he wasn’t aggressive or defensive. He didn’t look ready to hurt either of them the way Tony’d expect from the Bucky Barnes he knew, one who wasn’t trained to be an assassin, but was just a regular man, with a healthy dose of bravery. 

In contrast, original Bucky’s hands curled into fists and readied his stance for a fight as he opened his mouth to ask the very same question, with much more menacing heat...only to be cut off by Tony’s gasp.

“My God.” he whispered, drawing two pairs of pale blue eyes from two very confused, very gorgeous tall brunettes, “the portal. We went through the portal. Bucky, those people haven’t been disappearing. The ones we’ve found...they were sent through space, or time, and the others….through  _ dimensions _ it’s so obvious, how couldn’t I see it?” he was babbling and neither version Bucky looked much more enlightened when he stopped to look between them again. 

“We….what?” asked Tony’s Bucky. 

Tony sighed, “We went through the portal. It must not have been visible or tangible...that’s how all of the others didn’t-” he cut his babbling off at a glare from his Bucky, the other only looking more and more confused. “We’re in another dimension. An alternate universe.”

Twin disbelieving looks met his explanation and first of all, that was  _ weird,  _ and second, at least his Bucky should be used to this kind of thing by now. 

“Okay, hello. I’m looking at two of you!” Tony exclaimed, gesturing between them before settling his gaze on the new Bucky. “I’m Tony Stark, and this,” he pointed to his Bucky, “is Bucky Barnes. You, I presume, are also Bucky Barnes…and for some reason you...called me babe.” he tacked the last bit on with less confidence but looked imploringly up at new Bucky, who studied him with wide, innocent, trusting eyes that seemed so foreign set into that face that Tony knew all too well. 

“Uh, James.” he breathed out softly, eyes wandering over Tony and then original Bucky, then Tony again. 

“What?” Bucky asked sharply, surprised. 

“It’s James Barnes. No one’s called me Bucky in years.”

“Not even Steve?” It was a test, to see if this  _ James _ was who he claimed to be, and Tony wanted to point out that this universe might not even have a Steve Rogers, but James was answering before he could.

“Only when he’s trying to convince me to do something,” he replied with a grin, and Tony was amazed at how incredibly well he was taking this revelation, this must be a pretty weird alternate universe if he could accept the facts so quickly. 

“That sounds about right.” Bucky mused, shrugging with the accepting indifference Tony was so typically used to seeing on him in the face of the incredible. Maybe he had really gotten used to the inherent strangeness of being an Avenger...or maybe the two of them, being who they both were, could accept the commonality of Steven Rogers in their life as confirmation enough that this was really happening. Tony rolled his eyes. 

“So both of you,” James gestured between them, “went through some invisible portal….and you ended up here, which is a different reality?” He didn’t seem disbelieving anymore, but rather like he was seeking confirmation of the details, details he accepted as fact. 

“An alternate universe, yep.” Tony nodded, his mind starting to flood with a million questions. Who was he in this world? How did James have both arms? Were he and Steve alive right here by the same circumstances they were at home?  _ Why had James called him babe? _

“Well I’ll be damned. Ant was right. You know, he’s explained this….multiverse thing to me a million times, and I never believed him. It seemed impossible but, well.” He shrugged, trailing off as Bucky narrowed eyes at him.

“Ant?”

“Oh,” James looked a little sheepish, eyes cutting back to Tony and staying there, watching his face carefully. “Ant is my husband,” he raised his left hand, the platinum band there catching the late afternoon sun, “Anthony. Stark.”

“You’re married to…” Tony trailed off, looking uneasily over at Bucky, who was pointedly avoiding his gaze. They were married in this universe? So perhaps this was the world where rather than Bucky ignoring him at all costs, the incredibly annoying and unwanted  _ feelings _ that Tony just couldn’t shake were reciprocated. And...also his name was  _ Ant. Ugh. _

“I think this is the part where I invite you over for dinner. He’s gonna want to meet you. Might not even believe me if I don’t bring proof. I’m making stir fry?” James sounded all too hopeful that these strangers bearing his and his husband’s faces would agree to come eat with him, and Tony found that he hardly believed it himself. 

“Two Tony Starks might be our best bet for getting home.” Buck said, finally deigning to look Tony’s way, but finishing off with a shrug like he couldn’t care less. Why was his aloofness so damn sexy?

Tony groaned, “Yeah, fine, you’re right. Dinner it is.”

James looked delighted and Tony wondered if that could really truly be the same person as his surly companion. 

He supposed he’d have a chance to find out, after he met  _ himself. _


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I haven't forgotten this fic! This update is super short but has some answers, at least XD

Steve was hunched over the holo-table in the control center, hair sticking up every which way from the all nervous hands he’d been running through it. 

There was no sign of them anywhere in the city, no remaining radiation signatures, no blips from the tracker in Tony’s suit….nothing. 

How could he have lost two members of his team on a basic recon outing, right under his own nose?

How could he have no course of action to save them? 

Coulson and his SHIELD team were supposedly gathering intel on this new inhuman, but Steve didn’t even really know what that meant. Then again, they were the experts in this matter, so he’d give them the time they needed and hope they reported back with something  _ useful.  _

As of yet, the rest of the team wasn’t really finding much. 

“We’ve got the bike but there’s nothing else here.” Nat’s voice was tellingly apologetic. She’d wanted to report back with good news. The whole team knew how personally Steve took mistakes, how he tried to bear the responsibility for anything that went wrong, how he always believed it was his own fault. 

Steve watched the two new red dots blink steadily on the map, the faint blue indicating remnants of the portal’s radiation - it would linger for days, they already knew that much, but there wasn’t a lot they could glean from it that FRIDAY’s sensors couldn’t pick up anyway. 

“Scour the alley for clues, anything at all that could help. Banner can keep monitoring the portal’s signature from the satellite. There has to be something.”

He was seconds away from turning back to pulling his hair out when Clint’s voice came across the comms. 

“Uh, Cap….you’re going to want to see this.”

“What is it, Barton.”

“It’s-”

“We’re on our way back, Steve. Get Coulson and Daisy on the line.” Nat cut off Clint’s explanation and the comms went quiet. 

Steve wanted to demand an explanation then and there, but he’d worked with Natasha long enough to know that if she thought he should see it in person, he’d listen. 

*****

“ _ You’ll get your friends back after they’ve learned their lesson - it’s for their own good. -Fate” _

Bruce read the note, bubbly handwriting on a sheet of red paper cut into a heart. “What the heck does that mean?” he asked incredulously as a groan of frustration came from the holo-screen the in middle of the room. 

Agent Daisy Johnson stood with her forehead in her palm, “Not Fate. Fate is the  _ worst. _ ”

The entire room turned to look at her, save for Coulson, who offered a shrug and a nod. 

“You’ve encountered this inhuman before?” Steve’s eyebrows were at his hairline. 

“Yeah, and she’s a real raging bi-”

“She likes to think of herself as some sort of cupid. Her powers let her see the lines between people who are supposedly meant to be together, soulmates, if you will.” Coulson explained calmly, cutting off Daisy’s tirade. 

“Yeah, she spent a while a year or so back ending marriages that ‘ _ weren’t meant to be _ ’ in the most creative ways she could think of...we thought we’d set her on the straight and narrow, but...the portal thing is new. She uh, she couldn’t do that, before.” Daisy finished for him, looking a little too impressed for Steve’s comfort. 

He opened his mouth to say so, but Bruce beath him to it, “Hmm. Does that happen a lot? Inhuman powers changing like that?” 

Daisy was already shaking her head, “Not changing, no, but developing. Before she had the ability to see the lines, to manipulate situations to bring people together. She’s just gotten better at it, honed the skill. I used to be able to shake rooms, now I can concentrate frequencies to shatter glass or simulate flight. It looks like she’s just reached a point where she can draw people together by manipulating more of their environment. Time and space-”

“And dimensions.” Bruce finished. “That’s the only explanation if FRIDAY can’t find them anywhere.”

Steve’s head was swimming. Soulmates? Alternate Dimensions? And Why Bucky and Tony? Both and not one of them?

“We need to talk to this….Fate, person,” he decided, “Can we track her now that we know who we’re dealing with?”

Daisy laughed, “Oh sure. She likes to hang out at coffee shops and flower stands, staging meet-cutes. Finding her should be a breeze.”

“Great. Get on it.”


End file.
